Due to large volumes of motor vehicle traffic, high rates of vehicle travel speed, complex multi-lane intersections, winding road systems, and crowded vehicle parking lots, drivers today are frequently overwhelmed as they attempt to safely navigate their automotive vehicles to and from intended destinations. To assist vehicle drivers in their daily commutes, modern automobile manufacturers are increasingly producing and selling automotive vehicles that include various collision prediction sensing systems, collision countermeasure systems, and/or parking assistance systems on board.
Collision countermeasure systems included in modern automotive vehicles are each typically equipped with an operatively cooperating collision prediction sensing system. The collision prediction sensing system, in turn, is typically equipped with radar and/or vision sensors that are mounted on the front of the automotive vehicle. Such radar and/or vision sensors characteristically have extensive fields of view (FOV) that are sufficient to sense or detect a remote object or vehicle at a distance of up to about 40 meters away from the front of the automotive vehicle. Equipped with such sensors and based on the sensor data that is collected therefrom, the collision prediction sensing system on board an automotive vehicle is thus able to determine both the relative position and the relative velocity of another object or vehicle detected within its overall field of view. In making such determinations, the collision prediction sensing system is thereby ultimately able to predict both the type and the severity of an anticipated collision with a detected remote object or vehicle. In cooperation with the collision prediction sensing system, the collision countermeasure system operates in turn to selectively arm, deploy, and/or activate various safety systems on board the automotive vehicle according to the type and severity of an anticipated collision predicted by the collision prediction sensing system. Such various safety systems or countermeasures may include, for example, various types of airbag systems, seat belt systems, bumper systems, braking assistance systems, knee bolster systems, et cetera.
Parking assistance systems included in modern automotive vehicles too are each typically equipped with an operatively cooperating collision prediction sensing system. The collision prediction sensing system, in turn, is typically equipped with ultrasonic sensors that are most commonly mounted on the front and/or back of the automotive vehicle. A parking assistance system on board an automotive vehicle is typically designed to operate only when the vehicle is moving at a reduced level of speed such as, for example, at or below about 10 miles per hour (mph) or 16 kilometers per hour (kph). When the parking assistance system is operating, any ultrasonic sensors mounted on the front of the automotive vehicle typically work to sense or detect remote structures, objects, or vehicles at distances of up to about 60 centimeters (cm) or 0.6 meter (m) away from the front of the vehicle. In contrast thereto, any ultrasonic sensors mounted on the back of the automotive vehicle typically work to detect remote structures, objects, or vehicles at distances of up to about 180 cm (1.8 m) away from the back of the vehicle. If or when the collision prediction sensing system actually senses a remote structure, object, or vehicle within its overall sensing range, the parking assistance system then alerts the driver within the automotive vehicle's cabin via visual and/or audible indicators or alerting devices.
To best prevent injury to a driver or occupant in an automotive vehicle and also help prevent damage to the vehicle itself, a few automobile manufacturers are now incorporating both a collision countermeasure system and a parking assistance system in some of their vehicles. Incorporating both such systems in a single automotive vehicle, however, has some consequential drawbacks. In particular, incorporating both systems generally necessitates additional vehicle components, consumes and requires more on-board space, adds more weight to the vehicle, and results in higher manufacturing costs.
To help minimize such drawbacks, automobile manufacturers have heretofore proposed various schemes to integrate both systems aboard an automotive vehicle in an attempt to reduce the cumulative amount of hardware thereon. In an integration scheme proposed by one manufacturer, for example, the requisite number of sensors aboard the automotive vehicle was effectively reduced by having both systems share use of one or more of the sensors. That is, instead of having each on-board sensor be operationally dedicated to only one of the two systems, the manufacturer had both systems share use of one or more of the sensors so as to minimize sensor redundancy. See U.S. Pat. No. 6,784,791 issued to Rao et al. on Aug. 31, 2004.
Although some of such integration schemes have been reasonably successful in minimizing the above-described drawbacks, further integration is yet desirable. In particular, in many of the integrated systems included in automotive vehicles to date, the various types of sensor data collected from the various different types of on-board sensors are, at least initially, typically processed separately according to sensor type. For example, sensor data initially collected from one or more on-board radar sensors is typically processed separate from sensor data initially collected from one or more on-board ultrasonic sensors. As a consequence, the cumulative time required to process all types of sensor data is typically somewhat lengthy. Hence, the span of time extending from when an object is initially sensed to when impact therewith is accurately anticipated is also somewhat lengthy, thereby undesirably limiting the amount of time for the collision countermeasure system and/or the parking assistance system to formulate and tailor an appropriate counteracting response. Furthermore, as an added consequence, depending on the various types of sensors on board, dual or even multiple sensor-specific data processing systems are often required for initial sensor data processing in a given vehicular system. Hence, the requisite amount of data processing system hardware is often undesirably excessive and correspondingly both space-consuming and costly as well.
In light of the above, there is a present need in the art for an on-board vehicular system that (1) preemptively senses an object in the potential drive path of an automotive vehicle, (2) selectively operates both a collision countermeasure system and a parking assistance system aboard the automotive vehicle, and (3) accomplishes such through the shared use of one or more sensors among on-board systems (i.e., sensor hardware integration) and also through the aggregated processing of various types of sensor data (i.e., sensor data fusion).